The Class 2 semifinal round will open at noon on Friday with a pair of St Louis teams facing off, followed by a pair of Kansas City area teams at 2:00 pm
Notre Dame Rebels (18-6-1) -
Visitation Vivettes (19-5) –
A rematch of last years final, won by Visitation. The two teams met in the final match of the regular season in a game won by Viz 4-3. Here’s the Post-Dispatch description:
The Vivettes dominated the ball and spent most of the match knocking it around on the Rebels’ half of the field. Lydia Harlan netted her first career hat-trick, scoring the last three Visitation goals after junior Julia Bartolacci tied the game 1-1 with 15 minutes to go in the first half. Harlan, who now has 11 goals on the season, is one of the many weapons Visitation has at its disposal. Sophomore striker Jade Klump and senior midfielder Courtney Young lead the team in goals with 20 and 16, respectively.
For the Rebels, midfielder Michelle Auer (#4), tallied two goals in the game, pushing her season total to 41 at the time. She now has 49 goals and 17 assists for 115 points. Auer was the 2010 Class 2 Player of the Year and has committed to SIU-Edwardsville. Jessica Bayens (#3) is headed for D2 Rockhurst and Elizabeth Flowers (#13) will play at McKendree (NAIA).
Visitation is sending Mackenzie Barringhaus and Ellie Bumb to Bellarmine (D2-GLVC) while Kaitlyn Deister will play at Missouri S&T (D2-GLVC), Courtney Young joins Auer at SIU-Edwardsville (D1-OVC) and Lydia Harlin is headed to Denison (D3)
Harrisonville Wildcats (23-4) -
Notre Dame de Sion Storm (15-6) -
A rematch of last year’s Quarterfinal game, won by the Storm 1-0, will call on the Wildcat’s full powers to advance to the title match. The Storm, ranked either #3 or #2 all year in the Missouri Soccer Coaches poll, are led by Junior forward Caroline Shay and defender Haley Fritzlen, a Midwest All-American last year headed to Marquette this season (Shay has also verballed to Marquette, with NDdSion coached by Marquette grad Matt Darby.
The two teams met early this season, in a game won 3-0 by Notre Dame de Sion. Later in the season, Pembroke Hill, who Harrisonville defeated 2-1 had lost 4-0 the previous week to the Storm. . Another factor to consider is strength of schedule. Notre Dame de Sion competed in the MO-KS Border battle, losing 0-2 to St Thomas Aquinas as well as playing a full complement of Class 3 programs in the KC area.
The Wildcats have four college signees, including Christina Harold (#1) and Alex Erickson (#2), headed to Park University (NAIA), Shalyne Wheeler (#7) to Southwest Baptist University (D2-MIAA) and Karson Wilson (#18), Emporia State University (D2-MIAA) who will look to finish their careers on the highest note possible.
The Championship game between Notre Dame (STL)/Visitation and Harrisonville/Notre Dame (KC) will be played Saturday at 4:00 pm.
The 3rd place game between Notre Dame (STL)/Visitation and Harrisonville/Notre Dame (KC) will be played Saturday at 10:00 am.
Common opponents for Harrisonville and Notre Dame (STL) is Marshall. The Rebels walloped Marshall 8-0 at the West Plains Tournament in late April while Harrisonville defeated Marshall 4-0 earlier in April.
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Great write-up. I have to agree on the strength of schedule. A straight comparison of records wouldn’t be a great indicator in this matchup. Notre Dame’s losses came at the hands of some quality sides. While Pembroke and Marshall are both good reference points, another more telling common opponent between Harrisonville and Notre Dame (KC) would be Smithville who the Cats tied 1-1 during regulation at the Smithville Invitational Tournament. The games there went to a shootout if tied after regulation and the Cats fell 2-1 in the shootout. Notre Dame faced Smithville as their first real challenge during the playoff, having previously outscored their opponents 30-0 in District and Sectional play. The 2-1 Notre Dame vs Smithville score tells me a couple things. #1 The Cats can be close if they play their “A” game and #2 Notre Dame can be scored upon (something the Cats have historically been unable to do in the last four years I’ve had girls in the program). Couple that with a stingy Harrisonville defense that hasn’t given up a goal since April and I think you’ll have a game to remember. So the question you have to ask yourself is “Do you believe in miracles?” I do. Hope to see you there.
Thanks for using the term miracle ORF. Now I get to delete idiotic comments from “that parent” complaining as if I said that. Yet another lesson from ‘da bomb’ in how to make friends and influence people.
Hey in the Harrisonville loss to De Sion earlier this season–there were two (2) “own goals” which hopefully will NOT happen again. Ideally the score would have and should have been 1-0 De Sion. Which, I know is still a loss, but looks better than a 3-0.
While they may have been own goals, it took a lot of pressure to force us to make those errors. I still look at that game as a 3-0 loss That is not so say that we haven’t improved our offense and defense since that game. Even in our 0-1 loss to Notre Dame deSion in the Quarterfinals last year, you have to admit that we were under a constant attack from an overpowering ND offensive unit. ND has made the trip to St. Louis the last four years, finishing #3 in 2009 and 2010, #2 in 2007 and #1 in 2008.
Great writeup Ole! You’ve done a significant amount of legwork on all 4 squads and it shows. I especially like to hear were so many of these atheletes are headed to play soccer after watching some of them for so long in both high school and club.